Prime Minister Narendra Modi completed a year in office on Tuesday, his supporters in Jalalpur town (Allahabad district) began construction of a temple devoted to him.

Advertising

While the PM had earlier discouraged a similar temple in Ahmedabad, Pushpraj Singh Yadav, the person behind this temple, said: “We are his devotees, he is our king and we are worshiping our king… He is doing good work, so he is our God.”

The temple, scheduled to be completed in six months, will have statues of Lord Krishna and Modi. “The PM’s statue will be two-and-a-half feet tall, made of marble,” he said.

The foundation stone of the temple was laid on March 21, but work was suspended as the BJP reportedly objected. “The party leadership had asked me to stop the construction of the temple, so we spoke to Pushpraj and made sure that the construction doesn’t start. We also spoke to the police,” said BJP’s Allahabad president Ramraksha Dwivedi. He said he would again take up the matter with the relevant authority.

Advertising

Yadav said he donated the land for the temple, while others have also made contributions. “We have received about Rs 10 lakh from local businessmen and farmers. Others are donating cement, sand and iron bars for the construction,” he said. The cost of construction is estimated to be about Rs 1 crore.

Yadav, a former Samajwadi Party worker, launched his own outfit — Shree Krishna Sena — last year. “I had launched the Mulayam Singh Youth Brigade in 1989 and was its general secretary,” he claimed. He contested the 2002 and 2007 assembly elections from Pratappur assembly seat as a candidate of mafia don-turned-politician D P Yadav’s Rashtriya Parivartan Dal, but lost both times.